Blog of Aestheticized Violence.
Cornell University, Classes: One Girl in All the World and American Flow

Monday, December 5, 2011

No Woman No Cry

In class, we've often discussed women's portrayal in comics. So now I want to ask what's worse - including scantily clad, objectified women or not including any women at all?

I just came across this blog: http://www.thenerdybird.com that had some very interesting posts that definitely pertain to the main themes of this course. One thing I found particularly interesting is a post about the prevalence - or lack there of - of women in Marvel comics. The author writes, "While I've gone at length about DC and how they handle their female character...they have (for better or worse) [something] that Marvel doesn't, it's famous women." I proceeded to look up standout female characters, and the truth of the matter is that they all existed in the DC universe. You have Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, and Catwoman all under one roof; that's one hell of a superheroine rager right there.

Curiosity led me to investigate further, and I came to find that Marvel women that had stand-alone series, such as those legendary ones of their DC counterparts, are either short-lived or cancelled, as the recent cancellation of the X-23 series or that of Coraon's Spider-Girl series a while back demonstrate. Why? Are they not popular enough? Are they not bad-ass enough? What led to their cancellations, for outside of the X-Men, Marvel female characters barely exist, and those that do aren't often heard of.

Some under-appreciated Marvel women include Black Widow, Scorpion, and Mocking Bird. However, what is there we can do to get creators to realize that these women deserve an on-going series in an industry that's slowly (and unfortunately) dying out? What can we do to influence Marvel to perhaps create new female leads? So, this leads me to re-ask my first question: would you rather see women that are portrayed in provocative, promiscuous, and any other p-starting-negative-noun ways or none at all?

2 comments:

I actually feel like the strongest reason that these superheroine comics aren't accepted is probably due to their plots or marketing. I don't think that simply having superheroines portrayed as increasingly sexy will immediately help create a following for the comic. If that is the case, then I would rather superheroines not be in the market at all- for it takes away the point of a superheroine if it is only their physical figure that draws people's attention, instead of their super powers and story arcs.

I agree with Winnie that superheroines being portrayed as increasingly sexy will encourage people to pick up the comic for that reason. However, if women arent in the comics at all, I think that sends a worse message. Even though a lot of super women wear skimpy outfits, they are out there being awesome. Without women in the mix, kids might get the idea that only men can be these strong, brave, hero types. And that just isn't true.